Bengal’s new tourism advert was meant as a renewed push to place the state on the worldwide tourism map. Nevertheless, should you give an informal look, you’d have noticed the Eiffel Tower, Russia’s Saint Basil’s Cathedral, pyramids, and Rio’s Christ the Redeemer. What you won’t have noticed is Bengal itself. Solely the long-lasting Howrah Bridge makes a quick cameo – a blink-and-you-miss-it look. It has invited widespread ridicule on-line, with customers asking the plain query: The place is Bengal?
The advert was released as Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari unveiled a brand new brand, together with a contemporary model id, for Bengal tourism. He additionally introduced a Rs 500-crore push to develop tourism infrastructure within the state – whose geography stretches from the mangroves within the Sundarbans to the snowy peaks of the Himalayas within the north.
“Now we have destroyed the tourism infrastructure in our state. Vacationers move by way of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in our state and journey to Sikkim. We’re decided to alter this,” Suvendu stated on the occasion.
BENGAL’S TOURISM AD GETS TROLLED
The brand, together with the catchline – ‘West Bengal: The place India feels totally different’ – was launched by Suvendu with a lot fanfare on the Dhono Dhanyo auditorium on Friday. The initiative is a part of the BJP authorities’s transfer to eliminate Mamata Banerjee’s famous ‘Biswa Bangla’ branding that was conceptualised to showcase Bengal’s cultural heritage.
Nevertheless, the brand new tourism advert has not gone down nicely with the Bengali bhadralok. The advert, nevertheless, opens promisingly, exhibiting a montage of the long-lasting Howrah Bridge.
After which, like a vacationer wandering off from a bunch tour, it merely leaves the state. It takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of deserts, pyramids and different iconic locations which are nowhere in Bengal.
World landmarks and skyscrapers that don’t have any diplomatic relationship with Digha or Darjeeling make visitor appearances. The Victoria Memorial, well-known Terracotta temples of Bishnupur, the Darjeeling toy prepare, and so on, are nowhere to be seen.
WHERE IS BENGAL, USERS ASK
The irony was not misplaced on social media customers. Main the criticism was TMC MP Derek O’Brien. “Trash is a gentle phrase for this communication,” he tweeted.
Former Tripura and Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy referred to as it a “silly” and “amateurish video” and demanded that it’s dropped instantly. “Why ought to scenes from Moscow, Egypt and Rio de Janeiro characteristic in a video on West Bengal?” Roy posted.
“This video does a disservice to the achievements of the BJP authorities of West Bengal. I counsel this be dropped instantly, and the one who visualised and created this be transferred to fisheries or some such division,” he additional stated.
One consumer summed up the criticism bluntly, “The place is Bengal?” One other posted, “Was the contract given to some Gujarat-based advert company?”
Political analyst Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh quipped that the advert’s inventive director deserved an Oscar. “When West Bengal has hills to sea, forests to cities, what was the purpose of giving free promoting to the Eiffel Tower and St Petersburg?” he stated.
A piece even in contrast it to how the Trinamool Congress promoted tourism within the state. “There was tradition, character, sweetness and subtlety,” one consumer tweeted.
The tagline ‘The place India feels totally different’ additionally got here underneath criticism. “Examine it with Kerala tourism’s ‘God’s personal nation‘. Or Rajasthan’s ‘Padharo Mhare Desh‘. Which is such a welcoming and heat tagline,” Pleasure, a political commentator, posted.
It stays to be seen how the BJP authorities reacts to the stinging criticism of the tourism advert that appears extra like a trailer for ‘Around the globe in 80 seconds’.
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